Malefor's Last Reflection
by Maze-Eye
Summary: There are moments in life that shape and determine the path a dragon travels before the webs of fate ultimately decide their destiny. When Malefor must make an impossible decision, he'll be forced to suffer his critical past if he is to prevent the terror of failure crushing down on him a second time. (Set during DotD)
1. A Critical Moment

**Malefor's Last Reflection**

Chapter 1: A Critical Moment

High above the burned lands of the gargantuan volcano, the Temple stood upon its floating Isle. Crowned under a halo of swirling ash and fire, it served as a haunting reminder to all who beheld it; the evil that plagued the land. Once it was a symbol of hope for the realms but now it was the centre of all its despair and the fortress of the one who threatened to end the world.

Within the halls of the desecrated monument, the Dark Master sat on his haunches before a shallow pool of glowing water. The pale aqua light emanating off the pool cast lifeless shadows of the purple dragon against the ash grey walls. For many hours he had stared into its depths, seeing beyond into places too distant to observe in detail.

What he saw at first gave him a fit of deep chuckles that reverberated around the Temple, but as the hours passed his amusement turned to anxiety and finally dread. Malefor looked up from the pool with his yellow eyes bulging and jaw hanging – utter disbelief written across his warped face.

"N-No," he stuttered shaking his head. Looking back down into the pool, his breathing became heavy and erratic as he witnessed streams of lava erupting from the Destroyer's massive form. "This can't be happening, not now, not when I'm so close… how?" Through the glowing water a new image came forth.

 _Two young dragons flew forth from the Destroyer's gullet, one purple, the other black. With its last breath, molten fire spewed from its mouth before the gigantic beast slowly petrified, never to move again._

Malefor's doomsday weapon had been vanquished from within by Spyro and Cynder.

His face contorted into a snarl and his breathing grew in volume until it drowned out the whistling of wind around the Temple spires. Malefor bared his fangs at the sight of jubilation from the dragons, moles and cheetahs. He could not allow this; would not allow this; not while he still lived.

"NO!" he roared, rising to all fours.

Malefor leapt over the Pool of Visions towards the hallway between the tattered banners of Ice and Fire. Racing through the Temple to the central foyer, he reached out with his powers to the Destroyer. Frantically he searched for what was left of its spirit. _'Where is it?! it can't be gone already',_ _he thought_. His anxiety was soaring by the time he entered the large foyer.

The hall he stood in held multiple platforms of charcoal grey granite that were placed irregularly throughout the foyer. Each platform was large enough to accommodate two fully grown dragons and had wide steps leading to a platform next to it. The lowest platform opened up to the tall metal doors of the Temple entrance – belittling all that strode through them, even Malefor. Above him an open ceiling gave way to the eye of the storm where the sky cast the platforms in a metallic sheen whilst leaving the walls in shadow.

Closing his eyes, Malefor felt for the dark aura that drove the Destroyer. If he could not find what he was looking for soon, it would be another three years before he could muster the energy necessary to resurrect the beast again. He knew though he would not have that luxury a second time, not with Spyro around to oppose him.

Weaving through the tangle of energy that permeated the world, Malefor encountered a fading entity surrounded by a veil of rapidly cooling tendrils. Drifting towards the anomaly he shuddered when a sudden jolt of electricity shot through his body, _'Yes, there it is'._

Breathing a deep sigh of relief, Malefor immersed himself into the Destroyer's aura. He gasped as searing heat coursed through his veins and down his scaly legs. Despite the fact the energy was cooling, it burned his flesh, causing sweat to seep out between his dark magenta scales. He gritted his teeth and tensed his muscles as he began to feed energy to its spirit; preventing the great beast from dying on him. The cooling fire inside his limbs slowly but surely began to flare. A smile crept onto his muzzle as he relaxed and opened his eyes.

"Right," he groaned, wincing under the Destroyer's burning spirit, "that'll keep it alive while I figure this out."

Gathering his bearings Malefor assessed the damage wrought upon his charge. Initially the damage appeared to be relatively minor – the most notable problem being the severed left leg – but as he examined further the severity of the Destroyer's predicament became all the direr. Almost all the crystals that drove the great beast were shattered and the remaining ones were depleted of their magic.

Malefor's spirits fell.

Even if he supplied the energy to recharged those crystals, the Destroyer would move at a terribly slow speed. This would only leave it vulnerable to a renewed attack before it reached the Belt of Fire. Possessing the beast itself would overcome this dilemma, however his mana reserves were still exhausted from the initial resurrection of the beast. To go down this road would almost certainly mean his death and by extension, the Destroyer's too.

"Unless," murmuring to himself, "Unless I draw energy from…" Malefor frowned and began growling, "No! No I mustn't do that!"

Malefor's uneasiness was not unwarranted. Since his resurrection at the Well of Souls, he was determined to ensure his personal security above all else. After reclaiming the Temple as his seat, he raised it high above the land, forged the Belt of Fire and had his army patrol the Burned Lands. Out of all the measures taken, the Belt of Fire was an unparalleled success. Any attempts to break through or fly over it had ended in failure.

Memories of a cocky band of dragons brought a smirk to Malefor's face as he thought about his ingenious ploy. He found it most amusing when those with the gift of flight braved the ferocious currents above the flames.

He shook the delight from his face when he realised he was going off on a tangent. Now was not the time to indulge in fond memories. He had to make a choice.

He knew without the Belt of Fire there was a very real chance he could have been undermined or defeated before he summoned the Destroyer. Never would he consider diverting energy from the flames at the expense of his safety. Even if it was convenient, he couldn't bear the thought of potentially letting history repeat itself. He shuddered as images of his previous downfall flashed through his mind just considering that prospect.

Now though, at the pinnacle of his destiny, it dawned on him that he may have to go back on his promise. But perhaps if he waited for the dragons, moles and cheetahs to return to Warfang, he could circumvent this problem and just recharge the remaining crystals.

Malefor was brought out of his contemplation when he noticed a temperature shift in his paws. The stifling heat under his scales became more bearable than before. He also noticed his massive frame felt lighter and more at rest. Fear gripped his heart as he realised what was happening.

The spark in the Destroyer's flame began to fade again, and quickly.

Immediately Malefor imparted more energy to the Destroyer's spirit, but it did little to kindle the great beast. Panic encompassed him when his talons matched the temperature of the granite floor. In minutes the Destroyer's spirit would vanish from the world and he would be set back three years. There was no time.

Malefor groaned, blowing wisps of indigo smoke from his nostrils, "I guess I have no choice."

Reaching out to the Belt of Fire, he tapped into the perpetual inferno. Closing his eyes, Malefor quickly entered a state of meditation, breathing deeply and slowly. Pillars of fire danced around his magical intrusion, threatening to distract him. Within seconds the intense heat of the flames rose and fell with Malefor's breathing as they became one and the same. When he was ready, he let the pure energies of the inferno flow towards his inner fire.

Blazing warmth spread throughout his chest like steam from boiling water. Malefor mildly revelled from the surge of power spilling into his being. As his inner fire grew into his limbs and down his tail, he barely noticed his paws lifting off of the cold granite floor. He slowly levitated up into the void above the main foyer – eyes still closed – while he consumed the raging fires at the Burned Lands edge.

While the Belt of Fire diminished, bright purple sparks began to arc from Malefor as violet light emanated off his scales. The foyer began to vibrated to his power as a faint but audible hum grew louder; like the roar of a waterfall in a flash flood.

Opening his eyes, Malefor sucked in his breath to the one sight that horrified him. A whirlwind of water-like flames licked around his body while strands of electricity rippled erratically throughout the foyer. Everywhere his eyes darted the colour of his world was the same: the walls, the floor, the swirling air, the arcs of electricity and even his faded bronze underbelly; all bathed in an eerie bright indigo.

Flashes of his nightmares invaded his mind: clawing for dear life onto anything, alien beasts flying in an indigo void, dragons hovering back from the cusp of a ferocious torrent pulling him away, forever being ripped apart, his screams echoing endlessly and... 'that' face.

Terror dug its nails into Malefor while he focussed back on the Belt of Fire. In seconds anyone with elemental magic would be able to pass through the inferno with ease. His nerve broke and without thinking he severed his magical link with the Belt of Fire…

What had he done?!

Before he could do anything about it, the currents of energy shrivelled away from Malefor's body like dried leaves in an autumn wind. ' _No! No! I'm not ready yet!'_ Try as he might, he couldn't grasp or synchronise with the pool of energy at the edge of the Burned lands anymore.

Behind the veins of purple electricity, the glowing form of Malefor reared his head and roared his anguish. The sound of his frustration carried out of the Temple and into the swirling clouds around, echoing back and forth.

If his earlier panic was suffocating, he was choking on it now. The Destroyer would die in a minute and he still didn't have the energy required to possess the behemoth, at least not without drawing from his raw power and thus leaving him in a weakened state. As unsettling as that prospect was, with the Belt of Fire on the precipice of effectiveness, Malefor knew it was now or never.

His destiny was calling.

Malefor closed his eyes once more and curled up into a ball with his wings shielding his body. Inhaling air into his lungs, he drew all the violet tentacles of fire and electricity into his glowing form. When all the residual energy was within him, he focussed his mind on the Destroyer. Sliding his consciousness into the great beast, he imparted energy to recharge the remaining crystals.

In one swift motion, Malefor released his pent-up breath, extended his wings to their full span and roared to sky as he opened his eyes. Nothing could be seen but the blinding violet light of his fury.

The first thing he saw again was the dancing of electricity in his eyes until it faded to reveal the world ahead of him. He was facing west and could see the setting sun over the distant Warfang to the south west. Up ahead was the Belt of Fire and beyond that he could see the Temple floating above the volcano; but he could barely make it out behind the purple haze of his fury within. Next, he noticed the cries of jubilation and relief from his enemies, the roar of water and the freezing deluge of dam water cascading against his gigantic earthen legs from his left. In this current form, it felt like his true body was being crushed in a vice grip. He had successfully possessed the Destroyer and now saw what its eyes saw.

He only had moments before his fury would expire and his natural strength would sap. Spreading his essence out from his titanic chest, the fury energy raced down into his mammoth limbs as he prepared to move the behemoth. Twitching his giant hand, he reached forward with a solid arm of rock and grasped the cliff of the canyon.

The dragons, cheetahs and moles immediately silenced their cheering as they realised to their horror that the Destroyer was not dead. Malefor was almost certain he heard a cry of denial from his enemy's ranks.

Pulling himself up and out of the water, he brought his severed leg back in contact with its submerged counterpart. The fusing of rock felt like hot steel ripping into Malefor's tendons in his left leg and unfortunately – while in this form – he couldn't roar his displeasure to even try to relieve the pain.

Not wasting anymore time, Malefor brought his other arm up to the edge of the canyon and pushed the destroyer's body up. Moving his massive form, he took huge strides down the canyon to his right; allowing the water's momentum to help push him along.

Panic overcame the dragons, cheetahs and moles as they madly scurried to do something about the reanimated beast fulfilling its journey. Almost immediately the Destroyer gathered speed and, although they gave chase, it soon left them behind. With every step the possessed Destroyer took, the surrounding countryside shook violently while huge waves parted from its wading legs.

Malefor was in complete agony. Every motion he put into the great beast felt like his flesh was being flattened against his bones by avalanches of molten lava. There was no curse or scream that could have been loud enough to express the pain he was in.

Barging the massive bulk of the Destroyer around the bend in the canyon, Malefor found himself facing the west again with the Belt of Fire just several lunges before him. Making a bee-line straight for it, he barely noticed the behemoth becoming heavier. High above the volcano, the Temple itself came back into view as the purple haze that hid it disappeared. _'Oh no!'_

Malefor collapsed under the Destroyer's momentous weight. His fury had ended and his form collided with the canyon bank at the foot of the inferno. The earth shook with cataclysmic force and every fibre of Malefor's existence screamed. He felt his life force drain away into the beast's aura as he pushed on with all his might to finish its journey.

Summoning as much raw power as he could, Malefor extended the Destroyer's right arm up in front of him. This action alone caused his mind's hold on the beast to slip away. His vision began to fade and he couldn't feel the difference between the Destroyer's body or his own. Reaching forwards, wisps of fire danced and curled at the end of his rocky digits. With one last heave, he slid his rocky palm through the wall of fire.

His mind obliterated as every particle of his essence lit up with the heat of thousands of embers tearing up the destroyer's tail, back and finally at his fire encased stone hand. When his eyes flicked back to life, Malefor found himself back in his natural form in the Temple foyer.

"ARRHHHHHHHHHHHH!" Malefor screamed as his body hung convulsing above the foyer floor.

His entire being was smoking while his screams rent the air. Utterly spent from the ordeal, exhaustion silenced him. Without magic to suspend him or the strength to beat his wings, Malefor fell limp out of the air like a dead bird. The last thing he remembered before falling unconscious was the brutal impact to his chest and the sound of his jaw cracking as it hit the scorched granite floor.


	2. Recurring Nightmare

Chapter 2: Recurring Nightmare

Dark pallets of blue and indigo painted the sky above and below Malefor. It was like the ground had fallen away leaving the purple dragon and some small landmarks floating in an endless void. Fiery magenta webs – high above and far below – lit up the strange world while they cascaded towards something hidden behind the dark purple mist that hung all around him. Beyond the perplexing environment, he recognised the celestial moons hanging to his left, the faded orb of the sun to his right and the numerous constellations dotting the sky all around – all of which appeared larger than they ever had.

However, what he was seeing wasn't what made him feel uneasy right now.

The very air howled with a choir of shallow breaths, as if the realm itself was given a mutilated choir. Whispers of half formed words would interject the erie noise, causing Malefor to shiver and shoot a glare in the direction he thought he heard them.

He wasn't alone either. Every now and then, peculiar creatures would fly past him. The most discernible beast looked like a serpent to him, glowing stark white and green, while the rest defied any sense of logic. Their presence brought no comfort to Malefor, for the air tasted stale, dry and dead. Whatever these alien things were, it was clear his kind and theirs were nothing alike.

Everything here told him he didn't belong. Irrational fears of the dark screamed at him to turn tail and flee through the portal that led him here.

Only one thing gave him confidence. From the moment Malefor arrived, the elusive and mysterious magic of Convexity bloomed like a bed of flowers under his scales. This world clearly had something to do with its power, he assumed. He had been struggling to call upon this exotic magic for a while now and having easy access to it would give him the edge against those he now seeked to destroy.

"Where are they?" Malefor mused to himself as he scanned the translucent fog for his targets.

He had been tracking the Guardians for days and had finally caught up to them just as they entered a swirling vortex high above land. Resolved to finish them off, he followed them into the abyss no matter where the portal took him.

Although his visibility was poor, he was certain they couldn't have gotten far. Hovering there while he adapted to his surroundings, the beat of his wings felt unnaturally smooth yet tiresome in this bizarre world. As Malefor began to feel fatigue in his wings, he sniffed the still air for the scent of dragons but no hint of his former masters could be found.

After a couple of minutes, he groaned and relaxed his wings into a gliding posture. Malefor sought out one of the floating stalactites ahead of him and prepared to land. Just as he alighted upon its unique surface, motion flickered in the corner of his right eye.

Reacting like lightning, he fell to his bronze belly as something flew over his red horns. Jumping back to his paws, he found the flying objects to be hexagonal grey tiles before they vanished into the indigo clouds. Just another of the weird occurrences this realm had to offer him.

Standing on the floating island, Malefor shuffled his wings while he considered what to do next. How was he going to locate those Guardians? Nothing in this world indicated any direction they might have gone. Aside the poor visibility, no scent was carried through the air and the haunting chorus of sound made it difficult to recognise the thud of beating wings.

Surveying the dark clouds around him, Malefor remembered something his former masters had taught him about stealth: _'Always be wary of clouds, mist and smoke; a clever adversary will use the environment to their advantage'._ With this in mind, Malefor kept vigilant for sneak attacks and paced around the platform frequently checking each cluster of indigo haze. Looking back the way he came, he saw the bright swirling disk of the portal hanging in the distance. As he watched the phenomenon shimmer like broken panes, he made a mental note to keep an eye on it; he wouldn't allow his targets to give him the slip.

As Malefor's claws clacked on the hexagonal plated surface, high pitched claps of thunder would echo regularly from the twisting shapes above and below. Although there was no lightning, he could picture the bright flash that would precede the distracting clasps of what would normally be caused by electricity. Malefor came to a stop, smirking as an idea struck him.

Summoning the element of Electricity, Malefor crouched low and spun in an anticlockwise circle while firing a volley of sparking yellow orbs from his maw everywhere into the mist. Readying his wings for flight, he waited for the orbs to detonate.

In the direction he sent the first few, brief but bright flashes cast long shadows of weird creatures and floating stalactites against the cloudy veil that hid them from view. Keeping his gaze on the sequence of flashes, Malefor's eyes searched for the momentary silhouette resembling a dragon. The flashing circled around to his left, each revealing the shapes of vast alien structures and monsters but nothing draconic. Soon he found himself facing in the direction where the Celestial Moons hung above the dark purple clouds.

Just as the last orb fired off, he saw it. The outline of a dragons' wing cast a long shadow through the lit up clouds. It was gone again but that didn't matter anymore.

"Gotya!"

Malefor leapt to the edge of the platform and launched himself into the air. Powering his wings into fast strokes, he plunged through the dark indigo haze with blood thirst in his yellow eyes.

Soon he recognised the unmistakable rhythm of beating wings through the erie atmosphere and adjusted his course eagerly. When he was close enough, Malefor let liquid flames pour from his mouth down his body; sheathing him in robe of scalding flames.

Reflecting the blazing light of Malefor's comet dash, glittering green scales shone through the mist. When the Earth guardian 'Terrah' came into view just seconds from impact, Malefor corked screwed through the air at break neck speed. The green dragoness's eyes widened when she caught sight of him and attempted an evasive barrel roll. But it was too late.

The breath was knocked out of her when Malefor slammed into her left flank, cracking several ribs while flames raced forwards and wrapped around her torso and wings – setting them alight. Her hoarse wail drowned out everything and before she could recover, Malefor brought his red horns beneath her side and gored her gut open. Blood and emerald scales were bathed in the unnatural light of this realm as they flew through the air. Terrah's screams ceased as her burning form fell limp before Malefor.

A roar bombarded Malefor's earfrills from above. He twisted his body to face upwards only to be struck in the belly by a blade of wind that sent him plummeting past the falling Earth dragoness.

Darting his eyes back up, he found his perpetrator to be the Wind guardian 'Zephiros' diving after him. While attempting to right himself in the air, Malefor glimpsed the Ice guardian 'Enceladis' swoop in and catch Terrah. She extinguished the flames eating away at the green dragoness's flesh with her ice breath and retreated back into the indigo haze with Terrah in tow.

Every attempt Malefor made to control his fall was counteracted by the large dark grey dragon pursing him. Tumbling through the air, he would rebalanced himself only for another blade of wind to tear across his wings causing them to flail wildly. By the time Malefor regained control, Zephiros had closed the distance between them and now had the purple dragons' left flank exposed.

In a desperate move, Malefor blindly swung his left fore leg in a back lash towards Zephiros. It connected with the side of his jaw and sent him colliding into Malefor's tail instead. Seizing the moment, the purple dragon swung his neck around to the wind dragons' tail and clasped his jaws down on it. Zephiros barked in response and snapped at Malefor's own tail, only to be kick in the chest by the purple dragons' hind legs, denying him that opportunity.

Tail held firmly in his jaws, Malefor manoeuvred to be behind Zephiros while generating a small cyclone around himself. The wind dragon snarled as he realised what Malefor was doing and snaked his head around to unleash a force gale at his face. Not giving him the chance, Malefor unleashed his elemental attack and began spinning so fast the world was a purple blur. Zephiros roared as he endured the centrifugal force, his body held away from the center of Malefor's vortex like a sling. When the cyclones' spinning reached its crescendo, Malefor released the wind dragons' tail from his mouth.

Zephiros cried in terror as he was thrown away from Malefor. Tumbling out of control, he couldn't slow himself before he crashed into a floating stalactite – his wings caught between the stone and his momentum.

The sickening snap of several bones echoed everywhere, followed by Malefor's maniacal laughter. Zephiros roared in agony as he fell towards the swirling lights below. He tried desperately to maintain flight but only managed to further mangle his broken wings. Soon the Guardian of Wind disappeared into the dark indigo haze below as his screams faded away into the distance.

Looking back up as he settled down, Malefor picked out the direction the other two guardians flew and powered himself through the mist after them. After a minute of blind pursuing, he heard the laboured wing beats of a dragon moving away from him. Soon the outline of a dragoness carrying another came into view just as they landed on the largest floating island Malefor had seen so far.

The flat hexagonal tops of the stalactites formed a roughly circular platform easily large enough for fifty grown dragons to stand upon. In the center of it was a tall gothic structure consisting of four giant metal arches gathered around an empty hole in the platform. Ending in four needle thin spires, the arches themselves arced up towards the eye of swirling webs of purple light above.

Bringing his attention back to his objective, he noticed two other dragons. One of them – a yellow electricity dragon – rushed over to the landing pair and assisted the injured dragoness, while the other – a crimson fire dragon sporting two large black horns that curved back like Malefor's did – backed away from the gothic arches and turned to lock his grey eyes with the approaching purple dragon's own.

A tingle of excitement raced throughout Malefor. "I found you Phoenox," he murmured to himself, "Now you and the rest of your order will perish."

Summoning his wind element again, Malefor elevated himself high above the floating island to attain the advantage of height. Once there, he heard Phoenox shouting at the other guardians to retaliate and readied himself to withstand their first move.

The Electricity guardian 'Galvinn' was the first to initiate and arced his neck back to fired bolts of lightning up at Malefor. Before it occurred, Malefor swiftly created a sphere of stone around his body and opened his spirit to feel the essence of electricity. Although he couldn't see it, sparks of energy itched within him every time the elemental attack struck his earthen shield. Rumbling could now be heard through the rocky shell as earth missiles impacted against the exterior. Terrah wasn't out of the game yet.

Waiting for the moment to ripen, Malefor breathed in the captured voltage and let erratic strands of electricity flick from the end of his talons. When a pause in the elemental attacks occurred, he dug his claws into his earthen casing and sent a pulse into the rock. Bright yellow cracks split all throughout his shield of stone and the indigo light of the world outside flooded in as the rock disintegrated into thousands of shards.

Blasting another pulse of electricity, Malefor rained a hail storm of lightning fast stones down upon the unprepared Guardians. The four dragons below him covered their heads with their wings and with their attention diverted, he collapsed his wings against his flanks and dove down amongst them.

Malefor landed with a thud and channeled a seismic wave into the platform. Pillars rose and fell under each Guardian before they could react, pushing them off balance and allowing time for Malefor's next attack. Rising up into the air, he spun violently and let his Ice and Wind magic condense into a turbulent blizzard around him.

Getting back to their paws, the Guardians engaged Malefor. Phoenox and Galvinn jumped into the turbulence, using their elemental mastery to shield themselves from the chilling conditions while the other two prowled around the twisters' edge. Each time Phoenox or Galvinn tried to tackle Malefor, he would alter the direction of the vortex, forcing them to either fall back or be impaled by one of his flying icicles.

Catching glimpses of the other two guardians, Malefor noticed Enceladis had a look of concentration in her eyes. Locking her gaze with his rushing elemental attack, she opened her mouth but nothing came out. Seconds past and just when Malefor knew exactly what the blue dragoness was doing, his ice storm suddenly dissolved. Before he could respond, a bright orange blur brutally collided with him.

Malefor crashed to the ground and slid to the base of the gothic arches while being pinned by something heavy and excruciatingly hot. Gathering his wits back from the concussion, Malefor looked up to find Phoenox – flames dancing off his scales – above him and bringing his jaws down on his neck. Immediately, Malefor opened his maw and unleashed a blast of ice into the fire guardians eyes. It did little to stop him.

Rivulets of blood dripped onto the cold ground as scalding fangs plunged into Malefor's sinuous neck. He thrashed and kicked at Phoenox but the fire dragon's jaws were unrelenting. Frantic to be free of his flesh being mutilated and the scalding burns from the fire, Malefor summoned a pillar of earth underneath himself. The impact punched both dragons up into the air, ripping Phoenox's teeth out of Malefor's neck.

Bruised by his own attack, Malefor hit the ground with enough force to crack his left shoulder. Phoenox however, alighted gently several yards in front of him. While he let the vail of flames evaporated off his ruby scales, he licked the blood off his fangs and watched Malefor recover.

"Arrogant as always," Phoenox said as he spat Malefor's blood at the ground. He tilted his head and lowered his tone, feinting pity in his voice, "Poor whelp, you don't improve do you."

Malefor sizzled with rage, he wouldn't be mocked like this. Rising to his paws faster than the Fire guardian's eyes could track, Malefor shot a fire crusted earth missile at Phoenox. The red dragon had only braced before the explosive bomb detonated with his exposed chest, launching him across the platform in smoky blast.

Malefor followed this up with a stream of flames but had his breath attack intercepted by a thick haze of ice. The flames vanished to reveal Enceladis standing by a knocked out Phoenox, preparing her next attack. Her sapphire eyes fixed on Malefor's, waiting for him to make the first move. She didn't however notice the steam left behind by the evaporated ice right were Malefor's flames use to be.

Giddying manically, Malefor blew a gust of wind at the steam – dodging two ice darts in the process – and fired a bolt of electricity at blue dragoness just as the moisture condense on her scales. Enceladis yelped in fits as she collapsed convulsing on the ground from the devious move.

Smug from his quick thinking, Malefor prepared to pounce on top of Enceladis but was stunned when two bright sparking orbs detonated in the side of his face. Shaking his daze off, he looked around to find Galvinn crouching before him with sparks emanating from his open maw.

"Emulating my own technique are you Galvinn?, Malefor said barking a laugh, "I thought I was suppose to be the student hmm?!" Malefor planted his stance to face Galvinn, "Still, nice to know at least you consider me your Master."

The Electricity guardian charged in a blind rage, bringing his blue horns down to gore Malefor's chest while sparking electricity off of them. Quickly blasting a wave of air at the recovering guardians behind him, Malefor sidestepped Galvinn's attack. Spinning around, he coated the end of his tail in ice and ran it across the yellow dragon's fore legs. Guttural screams escaped Galvinn as the scales on his fore legs were sheared clean off the flesh.

Galvinn's momentum carried him past the purple dragon and when he slid to a stop at the paws of the other two recuperating Guardians, Malefor grinned. Opening his maw wide, Malefor unleashed a front of ice and frost to hold his targets in place.

Just as the elemental wave was about to make contact, the hexagonal stalactites that form the platform rose up in front. _'Dammit, I forgot about you Terrah'_

Frustration welled up inside Malefor's gut as lime green light shone through emerging cracks in the makeshift barrier. In a bright flash, the wall broke into a dozen head sized bricks and flew at Malefor. He projected an Earth flail from his mouth, deflecting all the jagged boulders headed his way. Clearing away the last of the hanging dust, Malefor's eyes met the sight of four Guardians standing defiant in front of him; all snarling and readying their next strike.

Malefor sat back on his haunches and snorted indigo smoke from his nostrils. "I don't know why you bother persisting," he said growling his annoyance. "Even if by some chance you manage to kill me, you know I've already rigged the game, you'll never be rid of me!"

The Guardians said nothing for they knew it to be true. Even if they did succeed in killing him, his spirit would escape to the Well of Souls for him to be resurrected each time the Celestial moons eclipsed.

Firing a barrage of elemental attacks at him, Malefor was caught slightly off guard. Reacting instinctively, He brought his wings around to block the attacks from the rest of his body. He cursed himself for taking this measure of defence.

Malefor shrieked as sharp icicles and shards of stone pierced and tore his wing membranes while searing flames scorched them and cables of electricity ran from his wing and into his body. Howling from the onslaught his wings took, his body also convulsed from the electricity surging through it. Malefor couldn't think clearly enough to break free and the neck wound Phoenox gave him only worsened with each jolt of movement.

As his battered wing membranes began to blister into tatters, Malefor grew detached from the agony he suffered. Every impact, sting, burn and jolt felt numb as each second passed by. His shoulders began to sag and keeping his head up proved to be very laborious. Drifting in and out of consciousness, he soon found his focus seeking an ebbing current at the back of his mind.

Deep within Malefor's core being, he felt the pure energies of the elements unfold before him. The raging red inferno of Fire, the rumbling green pressure of Earth, the erratic yellow pulse of Electricity and the piercing blue cold of Ice; all converged inside the purple dragon's spirit. They twisted and morphed like leafy vines around what looked like a fading star in the dark to him. When the essence of each element compressed against it, all the colours changed into one.

Blinding purple light streaked out in all directions, searing Malefor's thoughts with obliterating promise and the haunting rhythms that permeated this realm. The power dulled his connection to the other elements and his soul desire was to fuel the all consuming purple entity. It pulsed brighter with each breath he took, growing ear piercingly louder every time. In this moment, the purple dragon let it merge with his ongoing pain and let it sift like wax throughout his being.

The numbness Malefor was experiencing dulled and the brutality his wings took returned to attention. Screaming at the top of his lungs, Malefor's wing membranes shredded into flapping strips of dead skin. Spears of ice, fire bombs and boulders now passed through the rest body, but none of them had any effect.

All of his scales shuddered and clacked together as a whirlpool of pure energy rattled out from his skeleton. His bones weighed as light as air and his muscles felt were like rippling water. Opening his eyes, Malefor found himself glowing with a purple aura of wispy tentacle. He laughed deep within himself and summoned the power of Convexity.

Widening his maw, Malefor howled and let the mysterious element come forth, "DIE!"

Screaming like a death wail louder than an avalanche, a beam of intense indigo light laced with dark strands of lightning cut across the platform. The force of the attack knocked Malefor back several yards, nearly giving him whiplash. Ahead of him, the convexity blast overpowered all of the Guardian's attacks, pushing them aside as it connected with Enceladis square on.

A bright flash blinded everyone. Phoenox, Galvinn and Terrah were thrown to the edge of the platform floor and a gut retching screech followed after for only a second before it vanished. The world around was all that could be heard now as a thick indigo cloud hung where Enceladis stood.

Dizzy from the concussive force, Malefor blinked the spots out of his yellow eyes and looked at what he had wrought. A toothy grin grew on his muzzle and he bellowed into a fit of deep chuckles when the cloud dissolved, revealing his chosen target – or what was left of her.

Dozens of petrifying broken bones littered the ground, all of them arcing with purple sparks. Large flakes of blue scales fell sizzling around the remains of the obliterated ice dragoness. The most satisfying thing to Malefor however, was the smell; a sickening rich odour of melted flesh that tantalised his nostrils. Losing himself in the thick scent for a moment, he flicked his tongue out to taste the sweet air and inhaled deeply with delight.

The three other guardians got back to their paws, looking around franticly for their missing comrade. When their gazes met the site of the carnage, their wings drooped and their eyes widened in horror at the bloody mess before them.

Terrah collapsed to the ground in dismay, clawing at her nostrils and coughing on the horrid stench of her fallen colleague. She shook her head from side to side while trying – but failing – to keep from throwing up bile and hold back tears.

Phoenox and Galvinn on the other paw stood rigid but shook the horror from their faces when they looked back up at the glowing purple dragon. Malefor then noticed a steely glint in their eyes that wasn't there before, _'you must be daft if you think you can kill me now.'_

Now with the power of Convexity ready at his disposal, Malefor meant to end this skirmish for good. Darting his focus to Terrah, he charged another blast and take advantage of her distress. The green dragoness quickly snapped back to attention when she heard the inhaling roar from Malefor and rushed back on her paws to topple over the edge of the floating island. Just as she was falling out of his line of sight, she screamed when a bright purple beam obliterated her exposed left wing.

Malefor cursed in rage as she narrowly escaped the full force of his blast, "Dammit, always lucky you little old hen!" Turning to attack the other two, he found them gone but then heard their wing beats to his left. Watching them fly around to the other side of the platform, Malefor growled at them in ecstasy, "That's right, flee from me! Flee and still die!"

Unable to fly after them with his shredded wings, Malefor raced after the red and yellow dragons across the alien surface. Readying his next attack, he condensed the convexity magic in the depths of his throat to prepare a blast with perpetual duration. The inside of his neck felt like it was about to rip apart when he was ready to release the beam.

Malefor's maw burst open and the convexity blast escaped with earthquaking force. Knocked out of his pursuit, the jolt sent his neck wound into a fiery spasm. The sudden pain was enough for him to aim just to the right of the two dragons as the convexity beam left his mouth.

The deafening purple spear missed Phoenox and Galvinn who in response banked sharply to the left. Passing behind the gothic arches and they slowly glided around behind the purple dragon. Still firing the deathly beam, Malefor swung his head around to his left to let the great chain of convexity lash around likewise; connecting with the gothic structure in the process.

Malefor's spinning body hit a bone jarring wall. Flashes of multicoloured light hid the world from view and a tolling clank louder than the biggest bell he had ever heard shattered his earfrills. Everything blacked out as his collected wounds ignited all over.

Severely concussed while returning back to his senses, Malefor's eyes refocused to show he was facing the gothic arches with his convexity blast feeding into the space inside of it. He tried shaking his head away from the structure but it held the beam like a vice. As he attempted to break free of the anomaly, he noticed the convexity accumulating within the arches twisted in on itself and grew brighter and louder by the second.

Panic set into Malefor's heart when he couldn't cease the blast. It was like it wanted to continue emptying into the arches. Soon he began to feel drained and light headed as the powerful beam leeched him of his remaining strength. Desperately he thrashed from side to side and tried forcing his jaws shut over the convexity beam but his maw was forcibly held open by the energy pouring out. He was completely helpless.

Just as Malefor was completely spent, a second deafening clank reverberated throughout the world. Finally breaking the tether between the arches and the purple dragon. His legs buckled and gave out, collapsing to the cold stone ground with barely any will to breath.

Blinking his heavy eyes, he saw the convexity gathered in the gothic arches shooting up in a twisting magenta pillar of light. When it made contact with the swirling purple flames high above, everything changed.

The ground vibrated under the purple dragons slumped form and a deep and heavy rumbling of rocks and a whistling torrent of wind now dominated everything in this world. As the fiery lights above span faster around the pillar of energy, Malefor vaguely felt his tail whipping in the wind, followed by his lower body sliding around across the tiled surface.

Opening his mouth, he tried taking deep breaths to get a clear head and assess what was happening. When all the spots in his eyes vanished, he looked up to see hexagonal rocks flying overhead out of the indigo darkness everywhere towards something bright behind himself. Lifting his heavy head to look back as his body kept sliding backwards, he also noticed the alien creatures of this world vanishing behind the purple haze in a hurry; shrieking unearthly wails as they fled.

When Malefor's eyes met the source of commotion behind him, ice froze his limbs. Shinning cords of blinding purple light lit up the space inside the gothic arches, flashing brighter each time it consumed the matter that fell into it. The whistling of wind was so high pitched, Malefor couldn't even hear the scream that escaped his throat as he realised his body was sliding towards it.

As the ferocious torrent picked up speed, Malefor clawed out weakly at the tiled groves in the ground. The screeching of the wind twisting within the arches scratched relentlessly inside his skull, clenching his chest with dread as he slid closer. He couldn't understand why the prospect of dying this way terrified him to no end, but for some unknown reason, he dare not let himself fall into that structure.

At the last possible moment, his talons grasped the lip in one of the gaps between the stalactite tops that made up the platform surface. Malefor gave a pathetic yelp as his tail blade dipped into the cords of energy within the arches. It was like nothing he had felt before; cold as ice but burning like fire and biting into him like rabid fangs all at once, it was alien.

Trying to pull himself away from the terrorising void, Malefor looked ahead to his right to find Phoenox and Galvinn faring no better. The two dragons beat their wings ruthlessly to escape the savage vortex only for them flail like giant sails, blowing them backwards.

Even in this moment of dread, a small grin graced Malefor's haunted expression as he watched the two Guardians tumble out of control. He could almost laugh as his foes were struct by a barrage of flying rocks and fell out of the sky.

Striking the ground unceremoniously, Phoenox and Galvinn desperately tried grasping the cracks in the ground as they too slid back towards the howling arches. Malefor silently cursed when they came to a sudden stop just ahead of him but that anguish quickly vanished from his mind when the unrelenting wind dragging him back grew ever stronger.

Malefor's muscles burned as he held on for dear life. His earfrills stung from the sharp whistling but it was the terror digging into his heart that hurt the most. Unable to pull himself past the one life line he had – let alone fight off the fatigue from claiming him – the true horror of his prospects dawned on him. With his shredded wings flapping uselessly and with no elemental mana left, he was doomed to whatever awaited him within those damned arches.

Ahead of him, Phoenox and Galvinn grunted and growled as they too couldn't escape the hungry vacuum. They howled in agony as their billowing wings threatened to tear out of their sockets. At the very least, Malefor could be content knowing they would go down with him.

As Malefor's mind slowly surrendered to darkness, a silver glint of motion caught his drooping eyes. A large shadowy form rose up from below the floating platform while a twisting tornado swirling around it carried its weight. Approaching with speed, he thought it looked like a dark grey serpent carrying what looked liked a slightly smaller green serpent.

Confused, Malefor's eyes refocussed on the creatures and his throat tightened when he saw clearly who they were, "Zephiros! Terrah! No!"

Held within his cyclonic vortex, Zephiros could still fly despite his mangled wings. Unaffected by the ferocious torrent, he flew over to Phoenox and Galvinn and let the dancing barrier of wind expand to encompass them as well. The two dragons got up with ease and flew up to the wind dragon where Galvinn took the load of Terrah off Zephiros while Phoenox just hovered there glaring at the purple dragon, hollow satisfaction gleaming in his weary grey eyes.

Outside the twisting ball of wind, Malefor lost all coherent thought as pain and exhaustion consumed him. His head felt like it had come off his neck, his wings like unthreading yarn and his muscles felt like melted iron rods were prying them apart. The whole world around him faded away until only he and the screaming cords of light behind him were all that existed here.

Out of the left corner of Malefor's yellow eyes, shapes of blue and white emerged from the darkness, Heaving his gaze towards it, the shifting colours morphed into an ethereal dragon with ice blue scales and pearly white underbelly. Four jagged horns crowned his head with a small one curving up between his nostrils, all of them stark white.

With the little strength he had, Malefor took his left paw off the crevice edge and reached out to the ghostly dragon. "Shardis…" his voice was barely louder than a whisper, "Please… Help!"

The blue dragon just stood there, staring at the beaten purple dragon with emotionless aqua tinted blue eyes. With an expression completely relaxed, he opened his muzzle and mouthed one word. Then the ethereal form dissolved and the stone Malefor clung to, cracked in two.

Malefor's hoarse scream echoed into endless space as he fell into nothingness. Futilely, he tried flying back the way he thought he fell, only for a violet white curtain of this hell to draw shut over it. His wail was cut short when scalding rods of ice impaled his head, legs, tail, wings, body, mind, soul; his entire being. His purple scales were bitten off him as his body was twisted and warped across an infinite void. Blood boiled in his veins but his flesh froze as invisible teeth tore, stretched and mutilated him as one piece. His dead body became bloody mesh, but his spirit did not pass on.

He felt nothing, but the agony of being torn apart and reassembled again and again.

He heard nothing, but the drone of the last sound his obliterated vocal cords made and the hushed voices of the eire realm outside.

He saw nothing, but the endless indigo, violet and magenta cascading tongues of fiery webs licking and clawing his complete existence.

And thought of nothing but this never ending hell. His mind allowed no other morsel to contemplate except one ever present word.

 _'No.'_

* * *

 **Thank you so much for reading. I hope the battle was to your liking. =)**

 **Chapter 3 will be out in 2 days.**


	3. Unwelcome Consequences

Chapter 3: Unwelcome Consequences

Malefor woke up screaming. The coarse screech echoed back and forth and assaulted his earfrills. Bolting upright off the scalding floor, his waking terror became a yelp when his jolts grated against each other as if sand had gotten between them.

Collapsing back to the floor, Malefor slowly drew in his legs, wings and tail around himself and curled up into a ball on his side. Laboured breaths wheezed out of him as his chest heaved while his thumping heart felt like it would force its way up his throat. Every slight movement he made drove icy spears into his limbs, causing him to grit his teeth so hard his cracked jaw sent knives down his spine.

When Malefor's breathing settled down to a less hyper rate, he tried to open his tightly shut eyelids. Hesitantly he snapped them open and shut them again. In that momentary glance, he saw not the indigo haze or the fiery webs of magenta light but the granite floor of the Temple.

Slowly fluttering his eyelids open, he scanned his environment and ever so slightly craned his head up. A twitch in his neck startled Malefor who immediately shut his eyes again and quickly but painfully moved his left foreleg up to feel his neck. It was nothing; no teeth marks, no bloody wound or torn muscle marred his sinuous neck.

Opening his eyes once again, Malefor looked over the rest of his body and found it all to be intact. Only then did he notice the serenity of his surroundings and not the persistent distorted voices or the eire drone of 'that' world. After several moments of tentative looking around the Temple foyer did he finally relaxed, letting the fear and anxiety seep out of his tensed muscles like steam.

Raspy breaths echoed faintly off the foyer walls as Malefor brought his erratic breathing under control. Choking down bits of heckled lung, the sound of his inhaling and exhaling slowly became more ordered and quieter. Just as the tortured breathing came to an end, he coughed a sigh laced with long whimpers. When the soft sobs faded into the distance, Malefor remained still on his side just staring into space.

The air in the foyer wavered like the hot atmosphere around lava and the walls and floor appeared darker than they did before the purple dragon unleashed his fury. Malefor had definitely left an impression in the might of his raw power.

Even though the scalding hot granite floor ate at his scales, he felt cold. Cold from the horror of the recurring nightmare he relived yet again. It was a freezing rod that impaled his chest, reminding him only of his failure over a millennia ago.

He hated falling asleep. Over the past three years he avoided it like the plague and resorted to other methods to rejuvenate his exhausted mind. Deep meditation was the best method, followed by the adrenaline rush of falling from the Temple to the burned lands below during regular flights. He could remain awake for several weeks at a time doing this but sooner or later his exhaustion would claim him for the realm of horrors.

The nightmare was always the same. Virtually the same exact events from his past when he followed those damn Guardians through that portal to his imprisonment within what he now knew as the Realm of Convexity. Malefor shivered just thinking about that place.

He use to revel in the mysterious power of Convexity and would use it as often as fire. Now he hated it and vowed to only use it as a desperate last resort.

A soft but deep growl stirred in his throat just thinking of that damn purple magic. He hated its connection to that forsaken realm. He hated the sound it made. He hated its colour. He hated the Celestial moons. He hated his former masters. He hated the current Guardians. He hated Spyro and Cynder. He hated the dragons, the moles, the cheetahs, the apes, and almost everything else. Just as the growling became rough, it stopped and he gave a quiet sigh.

Above all, Malefor hated himself.

If only he had been more observant instead of letting his blood thirst get the better of him, Malefor would have noticed his mentors were up to something. He remembered seeing it in their eyes as he battled them upon that accursed floating platform; that glint of determination, the mocking, Phoenox backing away from the snare that was those arches. It was painfully clear now what they had been planning and he had played right into their talons.

Death meant inevitable resurrection for Malefor if his spirit could return to the Well of Souls, and his mentors knew that. In hindsight, after creating his means of insurance, he should have kept that knowledge to himself. Instead, he bragged of his eternity, assuming it would instil despair. He had underestimated his foe and paid hell for it.

When realisation hit home that his spirit was trapped within that realm, the knowledge of indefinite imprisonment hurt more than the torture he endured itself. The heaviest sense of failure crushed any of the little pleasures he enjoyed in life and he descended into madness.

Remembering his time within that prison, Malefor increasingly seethed with anger and hopelessness as the centuries pass by like twigs in an endless river. The Celestial Moons aligned for the Night of Eternal Darkness on many occasions and still he did not return to the realm of the living.

Five centuries passed before Malefor had learned how to extend his mind outside his prison. After establishing contact with what was left of his army of apes, his frustration ballooned. They had sought their own ambitions with the knowledge he had given them and left him to rot in Convexity. He saw to their betrayal the moment he was resurrected.

It took another century to reorganise those treacherous apes under his command and when he finally unleashed his army upon the world again, Malefor's name had been forgotten. His enemies only knew him as the 'Dark Master'.

Malefor weakly scoffed as he gingerly got up off the floor and sat on his haunches. He hated that title, the inaccuracy of it. The idea that he was the epitome of all evil not only annoyed him, it angered him.

"The hypocrisy," he said softly while shaking his head, "they are the ones living in darkness, too ignorant to see the truth."

Malefor wasn't surprised though. Again, had he been more vigilant in Convexity and if he had chosen his allies more wisely, everything would've been different. He only had himself to blame.

"He… wouldn't have been fooled," he mumbled to himself.

Twitching his face, he shook that thought from his head and looked up at the open ceiling. Through the eye of the smoky storm, the bright blue sky had turned to a almost black navy blue dotted with an array of bright stars. Malefor's eyes burst completely open as he realised how many hours had passed since he attempted to complete the Destroyer's journey through his fury.

Jumping to all fours, Malefor quickly made for the pool of visions but immediately ground to a halt when his joints cracked brutally. A half baked squeal gasped escaped his throat and a haze of dizziness descended over his body. He had forgotten about his exhausted state and would have to take this slowly – as much as he hated the suspense.

Slowly limping up one of the platform steps that dominated the foyer, the purple dragon's face held a pained expression. Just moving at a near crawl, every step felt like the bones of joints were scraping together like whetstones with the sparks burning the muscles around them.

Malefor fought to keep his thoughts on just striving to reach his destination safely, instead of letting exhaustion, discomfort, and anxiety get the best of him. Half way to the pool, he stopped for a couple of minute to catch his breath and tried to work his jaw but it only gave him painful cramps. Grunting, he pressed on and finally exited the large foyer.

Ahead of him through the long corridor, the pale blue glow from the pool lit up the visions' chamber. Doing his best to keep from toppling, Malefor turned his limp into a brisk topple forwards. He had to know now; had to know if he had succeeded in getting the Destroyer across the line. Too much time had passed and he couldn't bare it if it had all been for naught, but he had to know. Gasping in fits of agony, he entered the chamber just as he lost his footing.

Collapsing in front of the pool of visions, he let his sight be consumed by the swirling glow of the water and let his thoughts drip into it. After several moments of the water revealing nothing and Malefor on the verge of wailing, an image came forth.

A dark land burnt by the lava that flowed from a volcano held a gigantic beast of stone and ruin, with massive horns protruding from it triangular head. It slowly but progressively pulled itself across the destroyed land and now found itself at the base of the great volcano with a difficult climb ahead.

Malefor let forth the most satisfying sigh relief he thought he would ever experience. Every ache – despite still being present – now felt less of a burden; none of it matter now, it was done. After a millennia of agonising persistence, his destiny was assured. It was now only a matter of time before the Destroyer completed its task and there would be no more.

Sitting back up on his haunches, a sudden lightness built up in his chest. Within moment a quiet chuckle echoed through the room. Malefor felt giddy, what couldn't he enjoy about this moment; everything was perfect. Just as he began to feel the most spontaneous smile grace his muzzle in what felt like an age, it melted away when he looked back down at the pool to find a new image forming.

A burnt land flashed intermittently with colours of orange, green, red and white. Some commotion was hidden behind a barrier of jagged rocks and only after a bright purple flash obscured everything did the barrier fall.

Malefor's eyes widened at what he saw and a growl grew within his throat as he bared his fangs.

Two young dragons, one purple and the other black, strode up to the precipice of a burnt cliff over a river of lava and looked up at the floating islands hovering above the volcano.

With his rumbling throat on the cusp of screaming, Malefor closed his yellow eyes and opened them again but the image wasn't false. Spyro and Cynder had somehow passed through the Belt of Fire. He suppressed the urge to voice his anger and tried to think through this dilemma logically.

Those two dragons wouldn't be able to stop the Destroyer by themselves – not now anyway – by conventional methods, he knew that to be true. However, if Malefor died before the great beast entered the mouth of the volcano, it would crumble to pieces. That was it, he surmised. They were trying to reach him before the Destroyer completed its journey.

The rumbling in Malefor's throat vanished and a wisp of his former glee returned to his frame. If he could determine some form of leverage in Cynder, it would help tip things in his favour. There was still a chance for success. He would have to replenish his elemental reserves first but he was confident he could be ready to fight them off when they arrived. Looking back down at the image in the water, Malefor took in all he could learn before beginning his preparation.

"He's up there somewhere isn't he," said Cynder.

A smirk graced Malefor's face while watching, "Hmm, yes I am."

"I don't know if I can go through with this?"

"I don't know either, but we have to. You said it yourself, if we don't then everything we've fought for, everything we've lost... its all been for nothing," said Spyro.

"Alright then, I'll go…" the black dragoness looked away for a moment before looking back at the purple dragon, "but only because I want to get rid of this chain."

Malefor gave a deep chuckle. "My dear Cynder, I'll help you get rid of more than just my binding snakes when you arrive," his amusement grew into an uncontrollable laugh, "soon you won't even have your soul to get rid of."

As his laughter grew, it slowly and painfully transformed into a gut wrenching cough. Tearing his face away from the pool of visions, the two dragons faded away as he doubled over. The fit ended when his throat cleared after hacking up some blood, leaving a dirty metallic taste in his mouth.

Bringing his gaze back to the pool, he noticed the vision was gone as he stared at his reflection in the water. Before Malefor could summon the image back, he became fixated on his own features.

Curving back from the sides and top of his skull, three blood red horns dominated the space around his head. Four smaller horns pierced out of his head around his face and horns, shaping his facial structure askew. The amethyst scales on his face were cracked, giving them a reddish hue while a hardened bone formed a ridge down his muzzle between his eyes.

Of all his features, his eyes held his attention the longest. They were a sickly yellow verging on rustic gold. No whites could be seen as the yellow irises consumed the entire eye sockets but for two black slits that were his pupils. Emotionless pits of void stared back at Malefor, their tips concealed behind his heavy eyelids.

Malefor brought his head back up and straightened his posture. He kept staring as a long sigh escaped him, "I was never fair to look upon." As if to emphasise this, the water shivered as a cool breeze blew in across the pool and warping his face further, "hmm... not that it matters."

Another breeze – 'much' colder this time – blew in through the foyer corridor behind him, causing him to shiver violently. Malefor clenched his joints as the sudden trembling rattled his aching body. Getting up, he limped to the doorway between the banners of Fire and Earth to his left.

The dark corridor was longer than the other and curved to the left where it would eventually meet a second entrance into the central foyer. Many doors branched off of it to small rooms which in the Temple's past served as personal quarters. Now though they contained broken belongings and other useless sentimental material to the purple dragon. The only exception was the few rooms Malefor would store his artefacts of magic He retired to these rooms when warfare grew tiresome for him and he required a good session of magic crafting to ease his mind.

Malefor slowly limped his way through the corridor, searching for one of the storage rooms that still contained spirits gems. While each step didn't feel as painful as it did moments ago, it still felt like sand and rocks ground his bones and left his leg muscles feeling raw and unsteady; as if water was all that held his heavy frame from toppling.

Straightening his neck to look down the corridor, he saw it tilt to his left and the wall on his right coming closer to his side. Too late he realised what was happening when his flank collided with one of the boarded up circular doors. Malefor barked a groan as he impacted it with enough force to hear the timber of the oak door split.

"For crying out loud," he cursed under his breath, "must I crawl everywhere right now!" The purple dragon lowered himself to the corridor floor, his flank beginning to heat up as the bruise took effect.

Keeping to the side of the corridor for support, he paced down to the room he seeked and and arrived to find it closed. He placed his paw on one of the circular facia's of the door frame and after a couple of seconds, the locks unhinged and the doors retracted into the walls with a mechanical clunk.

As he eased himself into to slightly brighter storage room – mainly thanks to the presence of windows – Malefor found multiple chests, crates and round jars made of orange ceramic. Most of the containers were empty save for three wooden crates that each held a different kind of Spirit Gem; their shine being another source of light in here.

Stepping over to the one that held the red gems, he grasped the luminous crystals in his talons. The ruby glow of the crystals faded as Malefor let the energy seep into paw and through his fore leg, feeling the injuries he sustained melt away. It was like warm water cascading under his reddish purple scales, knitting all the tears and fractures back together like a jigsaw puzzle. While a slightly uncomfortable sensation, he welcomed with satisfaction.

When the purple dragon could drain no more energy from it in the conventional way, he closed his talons around the gems. The red spirit gems shattered like panes of glass and the shards dissolved into a thick red mist. It quickly condensed around his body and was absorbed between the scales.

Malefor sighed as the pain disappeared in a cold rush of energy. His jaw, joints and flank now felt as good as new but his mind still felt dizzy from exhaustion.

Picking up the light blue spirit gems, Malefor quickly crushed them and let the small crystals and blue mist fly into him. As the energy seeped into him, his heavy eyelids snapped open and his body suddenly propped up on top of his legs off the floor.

Blinking his eyes and flexing his muscles, he savoured this moment of ease and clear mindedness vigorously; these times were few and far between for Malefor. He felt like he could tear down the whole temple with his powerful muscles and run, jump and fly further than was feasible. He felt light as air and had to refrain from moving quickly or else one of his limbs would drift up and knock against the wall so quickly it would hurt.

Shaking his head, Malefor knew it would be his elemental strength that would decide the outcome of his final trial of his existence. He paced to the crate with the green spirit gems and on inspecting the glowing emerald sheen, he place a paw on the crystals and closed his eyes. Awaiting the energy to slowly replenish his spent elemental reserves.

While Malefor waited, he mulled over how he would deal with Spyro and Cynder. His relaxed muzzle twitched now and then as ideas came to mind and soon a small smile grew. He would manipulate Cynder into attacking Spyro. If he weaves a thread of doubt in her about whose side she is on, he could corrupt her again. It was perfect, Spyro would be forced to defend himself and be too exhausted to fight him when he finished Cynder off. Malefor's smile grew, it would also provide the perfect opportunity to drill the truth into the young dragon's head and shatter his will to carry on.

Malefor abruptly ended he train of thought as he felt something was oddly different. A peculiar temperature drop occurred within him and he opened his eyes to look at one of the arched windows – no breeze was blowing. He then realised the cool feeling was actually an absence of heat he expected to be rising within him. Perplexed, the purple dragon looked all around the room before his squinting eyes settled on the crystal beneath his paw. The green spirit gem glowed consistently and showed no sign of losing its luminosity.

His heart skipped a beat, "No it couldn't be?!" he whispered.

He placed another paw on the green spirit gem, vainly dismissing what he thought was happening. Nothing happened and Malefor's heart skipped two beats.

"No… please no!"

Digging his talons into the crystal he prayed this was a fluke. As the spirit gem cracked and groaned to the point of shattering, none of the life force within flowed into his body. Desperate, Malefor rose up on his hind legs with the gems in his fore claws and brought his whole weight down upon his front legs, smashing the green gems against the floor.

A bright flash lit up the room and shards flew in every direction after a splitting clash, but nothing else happened. No gleaming gems hissed through the air and into him. No green mist condense around his body. Malefor's heart stopped.

"No!" screaming at the top of his deep distorted voice, "No, not now, why now! Why?!"

Malefor spun around in a frenzy of claws, wings, tail and jaws as he proceeded to wreck everything in this wretched storage chamber. Crates and chest were flung against the walls, a table was turned over several times before it was nothing but broken timbers and all the while the smashing of ceramic jars echoed throughout the entire Temple. When the rampaged ended, the floor was littered with broken jars, green shards and many snapped lengths of timber.

With his heart thumping in his throat, the purple dragon dug his talons into the floor as a deep rumble ran up his chest before he unleashing it in a mighty roar at night sky through an arched window.

Why was this happening in the moment when everything mattered; again. Malefor knew he was finished in a fight without his elemental reserves restored, let alone have the magic to corrupt Cynder again. He estimated the two damn dragons would arrive by morning and with half the night already gone, he had very little time.

Looking down at the glowing shards of green, he snorted an angry snarl, "Fine then, I'll have to do it the hard way." Turning on his paws, Malefor strode out of the storage chamber and marched back down the corridor in a brisk haste.

* * *

 **Hopefully some of you got the classic Spyro reference in this chapter. ; ) In any case, thank you for reading. Final Chapter will be out on the 20th of Sept.**


	4. Reflection

Chapter 4: Reflection

Striding through the near pitch black corridor with only the quick clacking of talons being heard, the purple dragon made for his usual place of meditation. Out beneath the fantastic array of stars where the wind currents would bring him to peace, the Temple landing platform provided the perfect environment for him.

Entering a deep state of meditation was the only way Malefor could recover his elements now. He would need every second to accomplish this task and was making no delay in getting there so he could begin.

Before he entered the visions room again, he stopped dead in his tracks when something caressed the tips of his wings. Startled, he swung his neck around but nothing was behind him, nothing but the dark and dingy corridor he just came down.

"What in the realms was that?!" he gasped to himself.

Scanning the corridor, his yellow eyes settled on the boarded up door he crashed into on his way to the storage room earlier. For some reason Malefor couldn't look away and soon found himself slowly walking towards it. The boards that barred his entrance were of a heavy oak that sagged from many centuries of rot. Whistling through the split timber door behind the boards – thanks to Malefor's recent clumsiness – a small breeze breathed upon his scales.

He rolled his eyes and released the breath he had unknowingly held, His sudden nervousness was nothing more than a jump at the wind. But just as Malefor turned around to continue on to the landing platform, he froze upon hearing it.

 _Mal…_

It was just a squeak of a whisper, but Malefor tensed up and slowly looked back at the boarded up door. Something within his soul – some need – he couldn't explain, begged him to enter the room before him.

Letting the urgency of his meditation float away for a brief moment, the purple dragon rose up on his hind legs and pulled the virtually brittle boarding off the door with his powerful fore legs and claws. Setting back down on all fours, he stared at the ruin of a door, unease plaguing his features. Hesitantly, Malefor moved his paw to the opening facia mechanism on his left. The second his claws rested on it, a cold shock ran through his paw and his eyes dilated…

* * *

 _A small purple dragon with red horns scampered as fast as he could through the bright Temple corridor. Around the bend in the corridor behind him, a chorus of shouting, laughing and the clacking of claws on granite grew nearer. He stopped at one of the large round doors and put his small paw on the opening mechanism. Relieved when he heard it opening, the whelp bolted inside and closed the big doors behind him.  
_

 _Catching his breath heavily in the only room he found unlocked, he anxiously hoped the ones after him wouldn't find him. Just as the intimidating paw falls passed by, a voice cried out, "Wait stop, Creep's hidden in this room, I can hear him." The little dragon's heart sank, tightly closing his strange eyes as he prepared for the usual affair._

 _"Hiding in my room hey."_

 _The purple hatchling squeaked upon hearing someone behind him. Opening his eyes, he darted his head towards the owner of the voice–_

* * *

A loud snap brought Malefor out of the lost moment in time. Blinking away the lapse, he saw that the parting doors had stopped at the halfway point. The opening mechanism must have broken just now after centuries of disuse he presumed. Drawing in his wings and pressing them against his flanks, he proceeded through the gap into the room.

Inside, Malefor found the dimly lit room to be rectangular except where the walls curved around in a semi circle on the far side. Three massive arched windows dominated the curved wall, allowing a panoramic view of outside when standing at that end of the room.

Nearer to him, the floor was a complete mess. Many items and trinkets littered the floor, most of which had rusted or fallen apart. Looking around the rest of the dilapidated chamber, Malefor saw a collapsed and sagging desk and bookcase to his left and a tapestry in a heap on his right. He moved over to the wall ornament and pulled it out along the floor. As the purple dragon narrowed his eyes upon inspection, he found that the depiction had unthreaded but the colours had barely faded at all; ice blue and pearl white…

* * *

 _–A young light blue dragon, whose scales shone like ice in the sunbeam from the window, studied the frighten purple hatchling. He rested on the left side of the room on a large round cushioned dais that was far too big for his age. The colour of his scales, and his four jagged horns matched the blue and white tapestry that hung on the wall behind him._

 _Behind the little purple dragon, the doors began to open. "Get behind me," the blue dragon said to the smaller purple dragon as he got off his bed. Hurriedly, he complied and cleared his throat as the doors opened to reveal a trio of young dragons with wicked snarls and mischievous looks on their faces._

 _"Oh look… little weird eyes has got himself a body guard now," mocked the leader of the gang._

 _"Maybe he does," replied the blue dragon with a trace eagerness in his voice._

 _"He stole some of our fruit this morning, again! So get out of our way, this has nothing to do with you."_

 _Tilting his head, the blue dragon smirked at them and flared his wings, inviting them to advance. The dragon who had been talking tried lunging around the defending dragon to get at the smaller purple one but got a nasty shock when his head was locked in the blue dragon's right paw. Bringing his paw down, the blue dragon slammed the bully's jaw against the granite floor where it cracked loudly with it._

 _The little purple dragon's mouth hung agape as one of the dragon's that relentlessly picked on him, scrambled away from his sudden protector. Moaning and on the verge of tears, the bully ran out of the room with the other two in tow. Slightly intimidated by this dragon's quick prowess, the hatchling came out from behind him and stared up at the blue dragon's face._

 _After admiring his little paw work with a smirking nod, he looked down at the purple dragon with a pleasant smile on his muzzle, "You okay there?"_

 _Hanging his head back down to stare at his paws, the hatchling shyly nodded and gave a heavy sigh._

 _The blue dragon sat on his haunches next to him and offered a wing around the younger ones' back. "What was your name again?" the blue dragon kindly inquired, "I have a terrible memory when it comes to names," adding with a chuckle._

 _The purple hatchling nervously looked back up at the stranger's face. He tried not to look back down as the blue dragon's aqua tinted blue eyes met his slitted yellow ones, "M-Mal."_

 _"Mal is it, pleased to properly meet you, I'm Shardis."_

* * *

He immediately withdrew his paw from the tapestry. His throat felt raw and his limbs shivered from the very thought of 'that' name. A snarl grew on the purple dragon's face, withering away as soon as it appeared only to reappear again. There was no question whose room Malefor found himself in.

"What am I even doing in here, huh?!" he shouted out to no one in particular. Only the howling wind and its whistle through the rooms' windows met Malefor's earfrills in response.

Malefor was torn. He desperately wanted to head out to the platform where he could meditate but something deep within pleaded with him to stay in this damn room. Narrowing his eyes and suppressing a growl, he slowly turned away from the door and paced over to the great arched windows. His face twitched with each step. Why was he delaying, he couldn't explain and nor could he refuse whatever was driving him.

Sitting down on his haunches in front of the center window – the height of which was twice his own – Malefor stared out at the circling clouds around his abode. The pale dark blue light of the night sky shone on the cloud tops while the bottom of them was a dirty orange brown from the glow of the burnt lands far below. Every so often, a dull flash of lightning would light up part of the clouds before a faint crackling rumble would echo back and forth. Looking up he saw two bright stars; one blue and the other purple within a sea of multicoloured points…

* * *

 _Two young dragons, one blue and the other purple, entered a large cave while carrying large sacks in their mouths. They cantered over to a mound of treasure in the torch lit underground – curtesy of the purple's fire breath – and emptied the heavy sacks onto the pile. Both were ecstatic as many gems and trinkets poured out onto the growing horde._

 _"I can't believe we managed to get away with so many jewels with out anyone knowing," Mal noted as he marvelled at their growing horde with his strange eyes._

 _"What do you mean," Shardis smirked as his threw himself onto the treasure, "we were always going to get away with it." The red, blue, green, and purple colours of the gems clashed with the ice blue and pearl white scales of Shardis. "Besides," he said with one of his energetic grins, "they don't deserve this finery anyway. They should have to fight for it, shouldn't they Mal."_

 _The purple dragon nodded with a good natured laugh and rammed into Shardis. Both of them wrestled over the treasure, trying to push the other out of the pile as they played one of their favourite games; 'king of the horde'._

* * *

A sneer stained Malefor's face as the sudden memory invaded his mind. He tore his gaze away from the sky and stared down at the cold granite floor. Closing his eyes he shook his head, trying to rid himself of these thoughts but they wouldn't fade. Looking back up at the sky, he continued his sneer at the stars.

"What do you want?! Do you think I miss those pointless games, all the stupid banter and your meaningless friendsh–" Malefor's sneer melted as he hung his head, looking at the ground just outside the window.

The thing was though, Malefor didn't know what to think of his long forgotten friendship with 'that' ice dragon. Snorting a rough breath, he cursed himself for acting so juvenile. Even a millennia onwards, he still couldn't bring himself to mention 'his' name. As if the spoken word would somehow summon him and Malefor would suffer for a transgression he couldn't fathom being responsible for but dreaded all the same.

Fidgeting with his talons, the purple dragon stared out at the clouds. Although he had seen it many times before, the cool blue of the cloud tops now reminded him of Shardis…

* * *

 _"Are you ready to go Mal?"_

 _"Yeah, I've said my farewells to this place."_

 _Shardis blinked in confusion and tilted his head at Mal, "But… I thought you said you weren't going to s–"_

 _"Oh I did, that hasn't change," Mal nodded, then gave a toothy grin, "but I had to say goodbye to the rooms, the gardens, the doors, the corridors, the windows, the kitchen and anything that isn't everyone else."_

 _Shardis barked a loud laugh, "Ancestor's praise your sense of humour purple boy."_

 _Shardis whipped his tail around at Mal's hind legs, tripping the purple dragon who laughed it off with a flick of his right wing at the blue dragon's head. Just as they were getting into another one of their wrestles, a deep voice broke into their fun._

 _"Quit that nonsense you two!" boomed Phoenox's voice in his usual condescending tone, "behave as hatchlings in front of my comrades and the council of Warfang and I'll flattened you both."_

 _Jumping back to their paws, the two dragons saw the Master of Fire pace down from the doorway onto the landing platform. The dark red dragon bore his gaze into the two young dragons as he walked around them to the end of the platform, holding his gaze on Mal the longest as he awaited their response._

 _"Yes Master," replied Mal and Shardis with their heads held ridiculously high._

 _Snorting, Phoenox turned his massive black horned head away from the two, "Just as well,"_

 _While the Guardian faced away from the two young dragons, Shardis whispered into Mal's earfrill while pointing with his blue wing down at a group of young dragonesses chasing each other around in the gardens below._

 _Mal grinned as he and Shardis built a small bit of elemental magic in their throats. Breathing a fine layer of mist over the air where the dragonesses played, Shardis let the air become saturated for Mal to add his measure. With a flick of his tongue, Mal sent a pulse of electricity into the mist._

 _Short screams and yelps filled the two dragons earfrills and the both of them broke down laughing, Hearing them above, some of the dragonesses shakily glared daggers at the purple and blue dragons where as the younger ones just ran back into the Temple crying._

 _Oblivious to the mischief the two had just caused, Phoenox took off into the sky and beckoned them to hurry along._

 _"Time to go Mal," chuckled Shardis as they both got up._

 _"Finally."_

* * *

The purple dragon couldn't help but smile as he thought of the fun he and the ice dragon had gotten up to so long ago. Malefor remembered how the two of them would egg each other on to stir up the old Guardians or work together to prank or scare some of the other dragons. One time, Shardis had covered a thin layer of ice in one of the corridors and convinced him to lure his bully's down it. After overcoming his trepidation, thanks to Shardis's reassurance and optimism, he followed through and had some fun for the first time.

Malefor knew very well that if it wasn't for Shardis, he would've remained the scared and insecure little whelp he used to be. Forever submissive and terrified of what everyone thought of his purple scales, his serpent-like yellow eyes and abilities. He never would have amounted to anything at all.

The gentle smile faded off Malefor's muzzle and was replaced with a steady growl rolling up his throat, "Is that it! Is that want you want of me!" Jolting his gaze back up at the stars, his loud rumble continued, "You want me to thank you for everything you did for me or else your so-called Ancestor's won't let me complete my destiny! Is that it!"

Only the gentle breeze coming in through the arched windows and the silence of the night answered him.

"You don't deserve that satisfaction," he whispered at the stars, "You were only my friend when it was convenient for you. When the Elder's sentenced me into exile, you alienated yourself from me when I needed you the most."

Malefor remembered that day, still clear as if it were yesterday. It began when Enceladis found him enhancing a spirit gem in order to harness more power from it. The Council of Warfang then accused him of corrupting it with dark magic and charged him with blasphemy against those preposterous Ancestors they so ludicrously prayed to. He was to be banished at sunset unless he rallied those who could prove his crime was unintended. But when he begged Shardis to come to his defence, the ice dragon had refused in the most inconsiderate of ways. It wasn't a long and justifiable excuse, it was just a cold and mundane decline.

He shivered at the thought of the last thing Shardis had ever said to him. That 'one' word resonated deeply with Malefor and was the more disturbing part of the nightmares that plagued him ever since his resurrection. Shardis was never present in the Realm of Convexity when he was imprisoned, but in his nightmares, he was always there to relay that same gut wrenching word.

Malefor narrowed his eyes as he snarled at the sky, "Damn you. I hope you found life miserable. You deserve nothing else, I hate you!"

The gentle breeze picked up just a little and the cool air soothed the purple dragon's features until his face was bland once again. Even though he meant those words, his stomach knotted. He wanted to hate Shardis with every fibre of his being, but he just couldn't do it.

He knew why. Everyone he had ever met were unnerved by his ugly yellow eyes. The moment they made eye contact with him they would falter and look away, but not Shardis, never him. He looked at Malefor as if he possessed the same eyes that everyone else had. The ice dragon had taught him so much, helping him turn his pathetic existence around.

Malefor use to look up to Shardis in every way. He was clever, funny, brave, determined, his snarky attitude towards the old Guardians struck a cord with him too but above all, he held an unbreakable air of confidence. The purple dragon couldn't have wished for a better role model and… friend.

When Shardis had betrayed that friendship, he couldn't believe it. This dragon, the only one who appreciated him, cast him aside like the scum they use to have their way with. It was like a freezing spear pierced through his chest but finding nothing as it plunged impossibly deeper into his flesh, waiting for it to impale something, anything but never doing so.

Before Malefor could dwell on it more a powerful gust of wind blew in through the windows and caused a shiver to run up his back and into his wings. Suddenly, a flutter of energy danced in his core. Malefor's eyes widened as he realised a trace of his Wind element had begun to surface.

"Hmph," mild surprise laced his grunt. Sitting here in this panoramic viewing room and remembering his past had put Malefor in the right mental state. "I might as well do my meditation here, it's a good enough spot I guess," muttering to no one in particular.

Curling his purple tail around to his forepaws with the double edged tail blade resting on his left talons, he gently laid his massive wings onto the floor. He hung his head down, breathing in a long deep breath through his nostrils as he arced his neck back up. Slowly exhaling out of his mouth, he relaxed and let his head slowly hang low again. Malefor maintained this pattern of respiration until he was on the brink of falling asleep.

In this state, Malefor lost track of time. Hours could pass in what felt like minutes and vice versa. He had to concentrate to stay like this or else he would be in strife. If he drifted too far into his meditation, he would fall asleep and relive his nightmares. If he tried to think too hard, he would fall out of his pattern and would have to begin his meditation again from scratch. Both prospects were unacceptable for him right now.

The whispering stream of wind that blew in through the windows caressed his slow heaving form. As the serene air clipped his earfrills, Malefor let his mind wonder to his scales. The cool air ran over them, seeping in between each amethyst scale and letting it click back into place as it left.

Inside Malefor's core, the pocket of Wind magic swirled faster with every inhale and exhale he drew. Faded grey light danced and swivelled in the back of his heavy eyelids, growing ever brighter. Slowly his wings lifted off the floor, ripples of air racing over the folds in the bronze membranes. His eyes rolled backwards as the hot blood in his membrane vessels cooled from the rushing of wind…

* * *

 _Ripping torrents of wind sheathed Mal as he fell from the highest tower in Warfang. Twisting his body into a controlled spin, the purple dragon held his wings close to his flanks as he dove at the ground._

 _As he picked up speed, the air moving around him screamed in his earfrills and a bright grey curly wake of energy lengthened behind him. Drawing dangerously close to the cobblestone, Mal waited until his better judgement drilled into the back of his skull to pull up. Not two seconds away from impact, he unleashed a blast of Wind at the ground and flared his wings._

 _The purple dragon bounced off an invisible cushion of air, somersaulting back up the way he fell. The swirling wake parted as Mal soared skyward, dragging all of it back up with him in a vortex of twisting wind._

 _Mal came to a hover high above the city. Relaxing his wings, he held them out to their full extent, but he didn't fall. A twister, barely visible spun around his form, holding him aloft._

 _"Excellent," shouted Zephiros far below, "You have mastered the inverted tornado. With this technique, an injured wing will never keep you from your place in the sky. Well done, Malefor."_

* * *

Malefor's scales tingled and his wings slowly fluttered as the element of Wind returned to his command. Breathing deeply in his meditation, a small smile appeared on his muzzle. How good it felt to feel the free essence of Wind dancing to life within him once more. Letting his wings fall back to the floor, he continued his deep meditation as small eddies tickled his scales from the air current through the room.

Falling even deeper into his detached state, Malefor felt for the slightest twinge of his other elements; a flare, a vibration, a spark. Through his half closed eyelids, a flash of light from the clouds darted in front of his eyes unnoticed but resonated with his heart like a sudden jolt.

Static droned in his head, as the yellow, white and blue of electricity ran through up his spine. It zapped his insides as it erratically licked at the edge of his core, fighting to flicker to life in his limbs…

* * *

 _Bright yellow sparks danced up the purple dragon's legs, flicking outward as they enveloped him. Closing his eyes, Mal slowly rose up into the air, letting the erratic element build up within him. The large room buzzed and a winding drone grew in volume as the electricity arced from every fibre of the purple dragon._

 _"Unleash the fury now," spoke Galvinn as he observed his student's performance._

 _Snapping his eyes open, Mal extended his wings and a wall of brilliant zapping cords exploded away from him. The room became a blaze of yellow zipping stars, singeing the very air as they darted back and forth._

 _Touching back on the floor, the purple dragon deeply inhaled the static in the air. After a couple of moments of capturing all the electricity, he built all of it up in the back of his throat. Bemused, the Guardian of Electricity narrowed his eyes at what the younger dragon was doing. Before he could question it, Mal launched a bright sparking orb from his maw which flew through the air and detonated with a resonating pop and flash on the wall._

 _Mal looked towards his master, awaiting his reaction with a smug look. "In-Incredible!" stuttered the yellow dragon, "never have I seen that technique before! A ball of electricity as a projectile to detonate at a later point! Remarkable! You are a prodigy Malefor."_

* * *

In and out Malefor breathed, maintaining his deep mediation as his Electricity element pulsed to life once more. At the back of his mind, he let the surging current of power stagger to the bottom of his paws, small blue sparks jumping between his talons as it did.

Letting his claws sink through the granite floor, the electricity earthed out into the ground. The cold rock under the granite quietly vibrated to the electrical intrusion. Small resonating patterns shivered up into his paws, but it cooled and soothed him like the soil beneath the undergrowth.

Jittering steadily, Malefor honed his thoughts on this quick rocking motion. Inhaling, the vibrations dulled; exhaling, they grew more violent. Falling deeper into the blackness of his subconsciousness, his body began to sway as the rumble of rock and stone rattled his limbs from within. His core fracturing like a shell with green light shinning through the cracks from the inside…

* * *

 _The wall of rock in front of Mal cracked with a grinding squeal. His talons ran into the ground where he directed the element of Earth through it and into barrier of stone. Webs of green light pierced from within the wall as they crisscrossed over the entire surface._

 _Crouching low to the ground, the purple dragon breathed an Earthen flail out in front of him and spun around on the spot. The glowing lime green flail whipped around and struck the cracked wall with enough force to break a leg. A bright flash of emerald light lit up the training area, followed by clouds of dust and the brutal crash of boulders tearing through dummies, stone structures and the training room wall behind it._

 _When the dust cleared, utter devastation lay ahead of Mal but he noticed one of the targets still stood upright. Looking to his right, the newly appointed Guardian of Earth 'Terrah' nodded her head in approval of his feat and allowed him the freedom of finishing the task with ease._

 _He snarled eagerly and leapt high into the air. Powering his wings above the defiant target, he summoned a sphere of rock to form around his body. When enough weight was acquired, Mal dove down upon it in a green aura of rock, pummelling into the floor like a meteor._

* * *

The purple dragon's eyes snapped open as a jolt jarred his legs. The haze over his eyes cleared and the world around came back into focus. Malefor's mediative state was slipping away.

Steadying his breathing pattern, he briefly looked around the room. Fading ribbons of green webbing ran from the floor around his paws and up through the walls. The stone pillars between the arched windows were threatening to crumble apart from the Earth blast he must have released into the ground. His limbs relaxed back into place, knowing he had recovered another element. Looking outside, he nearly let out a gasp of panic before his focus on breathing prevented him.

The brilliant array of stars had all but disappeared, leaving only the brightest few still visible in the now royal blue sky. On the horizon beneath the swirling mass of clouds, the sky was slowly turing to a greenish yellow from the light of the coming sunrise.

Malefor let the frightening sight go to the back of his mind. He couldn't let anxiety determine his fate now. Breathing in; Breathing out, the purple dragon relentless persisted with his meditation, falling back into his detached state relatively quickly.

Cool night air drained into his nostrils like a slow stream of still water, soothing his slow heaving chest. Malefor could feel the essence of his three awoken elements twist around his deep thoughts as they intwined around each other.

He felt for his two remaining elements to dance to their master's command once more. With every draw of breath, he plunged deeper into the well of his core. All conscious thought left his mind as the black abyss of nothingness stared back at him. He fell deeper into the pit of his elemental source, seeking; reaching; praying for the tiniest flare of Fire or the stabbing chill of… Ice.

The darkness parted beneath his mental delve and he was sucked unwilling deeper and deeper until his world flashed…

* * *

 _Mal strode through the late afternoon sun bathed streets of Warfang with four of the city guard escorting him to his requested destination. The purple dragon, although an adult in his own right was still smaller than the four dragons making sure he didn't try anything._

 _Moles, dragons and others on the sidewalk muttered to themselves as they watched the disgraced purple dragon being led down the road. Mal cast them angry sneers and narrowed his eyes at anyone who dare make eye contact with him. He gave a snort of satisfaction as they all looked away and falter when they did._

 _Turning a corner in the street, the entourage made their way down to a small domed dwelling. Arriving at the entrance, the guards parted to let the purple dragon access._

 _"Be quick Malefor," stated the leading guard, "you'll need to have your defending party at the Council before sundown if you wish to remain in Warfang."_

 _"Yes, yes, I know." Mal grumbled as he opened the large door to enter._

 _Pacing briskly inside, Mal marched down a short corridor to a room where he found the one he was looking for. A blue dragon with four jagged white horns and a smaller one on his snout adorning his head, rested on a large cushion whilst leisurely reading. When the purple dragon racked the doorway with the back of his talons, Shardis looked up from his scroll to him._

 _"Oh, good evening Mal, how are y–" Shardis stopped when he saw the desperation in the purple dragon's strange eyes._

 _"I'm not doing well at all Shardis, you see–"_

 _"What have you done!" whispered the ice dragon as he slowly got to his paws. Shardis stepped forward just a little, his maw was hanging open slightly as he gauged Mal's face with his unblinking aqua tinted blue eyes. Before Shardis could say anything, the purple dragon blurted out everything._

 _"The Elders! They're going to banish me at sundown! They don't understand! I'm not the problem, they are! I did nothing wrong! They were just crystals! They don't understand me! They don't underst–" Mal nearly jumped out of his scales when Shardis broke in furiously._

 _"Mal you moron! I told you not to tamper with spirit gems again! Don't you listen! Are you stupid!"_

 _The purple dragpn's breath caught in his throat and he backed away slightly._

 _"You should have thanked your lucky stars I didn't tell the Guardians when I found that indigo sparking abomination of a crystal! you created last month." He rolled his eyes as he added, "And then you go and do it again for Ancestor's sakes!"_

 _Shocked, he tried to respond but just stuttered and hung his head to momentarily look away from Shardis's venomous glare. Why his friend was being this way with him he couldn't understand, but it hurt and he didn't know why it did._

 _"You knew full well that doing something like that is considered blasphemy and abhorrent!" the ice dragon's voice grew harsher through his now bared fangs, "Did you think that they would make an exception with you, or what!"_

 _"N-no… okay m-maybe, but they… they still don't understand." Breathing deeply, Mal looked pleadingly at him with his eyes, "But right now I need your help… They've given me the chance to get out of this. I just need you to come with me to the Council and convince them that–"_

 _One sharp word cut into the air, "No."_

 _Mal blinked in confusion, "Wh-what do you mean–"_

 _"No," he repeated with narrowed eyes this time._

 _"B-But I need your help–"_

 _"No," he bluntly said once more. Shardis gave a flick of his eyes towards the exit behind Mal before settling his ice cold glare back on the purple dragon's wavering yellow one._

 _Mal couldn't believe it. This couldn't be happening to him. This was his best friend, he would never do this to him. Trying his best to strengthen his voice, the purple dragon let a plea roll of his tongue but pathetically stumbled on it as it came out._

 _"Sh-Sh-Shard…"_

 _All words died in his throat after his stutter and the silence hurt almost as much as the chilling stare the ice dragon gave Mal. It was a look he was familiar and comfortable with from everyone except Shardis. His insides felt like lake water in the winter and his joints like shards of ice splitting under that indifferent gaze. Just as he thought he could hear creaking ice, the long silence was broken._

 _"No."_

 _Mal's chest froze. The ice dragon could have spat a freezing icicle at him and it would've felt the same. His limbs felt numb and lifeless but he didn't collapse. Like a corpse frozen in a glacier, he stood rigid as a statue as his world turned to ice around him._

 _He couldn't bare it any longer and tore his yellow eyes away from the cold stare of the ice dragon. Mal turned around and slowly paced his frozen limbs back through the small corridor, feeling the stranger's eyes bore into the back of his skull as he left._

 _Looking down at his paws as he put one in front of the other, Mal exited the dwelling and found himself in the company of the guards once more. Without saying anything, they gathered around him and marched with him in the direction he was already heading; the main city gates._

 _The cooling air of the approaching night now felt unnaturally hot against his frigid purple scales as every step on the warm cobblestone street burnt his frozen paws. His earfrills droned with the sound of muttering and whispers from the passing civilians but he made no effort raise his head to glare at them with his now burning eyes._

 _When they arrived at the gates, the sun was touching the city horizon behind the purple dragon. Hearing a command barked from one of the guards and the heavy clank of the metal hinges swinging, Mal continued his solemn pacing unimpeded under the great city parapet. Only when he walked into the shadow of the massive city walls and heard the reverberating clank of steel on stone, did he stop._

 _Standing alone in the dominating shadow with nothing but open wilderness in front of him for leagues, the purple dragon stared at his paws. An hour passed before he looked up at the distant horizon shrouded in the blackness of the night. His face was relaxed as he scanned it with his strange yellow eyes. Alone, they burned brighter than the faint stars above the dark world now before Malefor._

 _Taking one step into the night, he let the creak of ice in his limbs crackle apart. Taking the next, the chill within his chest started to thaw and something new began to bloom. With every increasing step, his core flickered and flared with a fire Malefor savoured. Intense delight twitching all over his warped face._

 _Now cantering across the dark plain, the purple dragon kept his eyes locked on the horizon, never looking back or giving the Dragon City another thought. He began to bound as fast as his legs would carry him over the cold ground and soon the lights of civilisation faded away behind him and still he pushed himself further._

 _Burning madly, his muscles stretched and flexed as he charged through the empty wilderness. The ice in his limbs and chest melted away from the inferno raging from his very heart, consuming every fibre of his being with ravenous hunger._

 _With one massive bound, Malefor leapt into the air and beat his bronze wings down. He soared high into the sky, feeling the wind catch him and push him higher into the darkness. Beating his wings again and again until the ligaments howled in pain, the all enveloping fire set them ablaze as well._

 _Fire coursed though his body like liquid metal until even his purple scales shone with a reddish brilliance. Finally, the burning rage from his heart melded with the burning in his fiery golden eyes and the dark sky opened to Malefor._

 _He beheld a world engulfed by raging and all consuming flames, burning everything to ashes until only dust caked his tongue. Far away in the center of the cataclysm, a shinning amethyst star in the shape of a dragon roared his victory louder than the deafening hell storm itself. Brighter and brighter the purple light burned until it grew to encompass the entire world in a bright flash._

* * *

Malefor slowly opened his eyes as he exhaled one last time, trails of indigo smoke escaping his nostrils as he did. Sunlight streamed through the arched windows, striking his yellow eyes and beginning to warm his purple scales. He felt the cold surface of ice coating the floor and looked down to see strands of icicles much like spider legs, reaching up into the cracked walls before him.

Looking back up at the horizon, he saw the sun just starting to vanish underneath the bottom of the swirling clouds as it rose. A sly grin twisted across his muzzle as he looked higher through the arched window to the now ice blue sky. Weightlessness built up in his lungs as he observed the cold colour of that sky with an intense fang bared smile running across his warped purple face.

"Hm hm hm hm hm, thank you Shardis," he said with a mad yellow gaze piercing the heavens, "Thank you for pointing me to my destiny."

The smoke emanating from his nostrils thickened as giddiness overtook every thought in his head. Chuckling deeper and raspier, Malefor opened his maw to let liquid flames froth from his mouth as the crackle of fire melded with his laughter. With a quick but deep breath and he rent forth a massive bellow that echoed throughout the Temple with his insane glee.

Feeling lighter than air, he screamed manically at the sky and clouds. His eyes stung from the thick smoke steaming from his nostrils that now hung around his head. Tainting his view of the sky, wispy red waves evaporated off his yellow eyes that now shone as hard and bright as the sun; save for two deep dark slits that ate all light.

When he finally settled down, Malefor got up from his haunches and strode out of the chamber he would never visit again. A tiny flick of air nicked the edge of his tail as he left but he paid it no mind as he rushed down the corridor.

With powerful steps, he made straight for the central foyer post haste. Entering the Visions room without a single glance at the water in the center, the purple dragon continued on to the doorway between the banners of Ice and Fire.

It was quiet in the large foyer of the Temple when Malefor arrived but the air still wavered like a mirage from the heat of the fury he unleashed the day before. Waiting for the two dragons to arrive at any moment, he found himself falling back into a steady rhythm of breathing again as he listened to the tiniest whistle of wind high above.

The sound of small pawfalls interrupted his short reprieve but it matter not; they were here. Malefor made out voices muttering something he didn't quite catch but he smiled to himself as they approached from the other side of the massive metal doors on the opposite side of the foyer. The purple dragon chuckled quietly.

"It's time."

With a flick of his eyes, the great Temple doors opened to the last ones daring to deny him his destiny. Marching into the foyer, Spyro and Cynder beheld the large purple dragon Malefor with both determination and terror in their eyes.

"At long last, my guests have arrived. Please, come in."

* * *

 **Well that is it for now. Thank you so much for reading through to the end of this story and whether you liked it or not, or thought the writing had any quality, I appreciate the time you gave for me. So please leave a comment.**

 **Again, many thanks to the awesome spyro fanfic writers I mentioned at the beginning of this story. They opened my imagination to this fandom and inspired me to try my hand at creative writing.**

 **I'll be gone for the rest of the year probably but I have many other ideas for tLoS and will return with something new relatively soon.**

 **~Maze-Eye**


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